The entity:
Two Countries, One Forest (2C1Forest) is an international organization dedicated to using landscape conservation to protect and maintain the Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion, which includes 33-million hectares (80-million acres) and forests spanning the eastern edge of North America. Learn more about 2C1Forest's cross-border conservation collaborative and its partner organizations here.

The ecosystem:
The Northern Appalachian/Acadian ecoregion is unique, and uniquely challenged: we know of nowhere else in the world where so much forest is located so close to so many people. The ecoregion spans two countries, five states and four provinces; it contains rare alpine vegetation, at-risk species, old-growth forests and 5.4 million people. Preliminary studies reveal that this ecoregion risks being separated into a series of ecological islands. Protection of key landscape linkages is a critical need. 2C1Forest's 50 conservation organizations, researchers, and foundations are working to protect this precious ecoregion's long-term health. Learn about this 'area at risk' here.

The idea:
Who is tracking the cumulative ecological effect of land-use decisions being made today, on both sides of our border? Conservationists and government agencies in Canada and the U.S. have little history of working together on habitat protection and history has taught us that, when it comes to conservation, isolated protection and thinking does not work.

What will happen in our states and provinces if connectivity and ecological richness is lost over time? Increasingly, Americans and Canadians believe the best way to protect and restore this area is to work at a local level, and to use a powerful tool: science-based landscape conservation.

Since 2003, 2C1Forest's Canadian and American members have been collaborating and creating a deeper, science-based understanding of this ecoregion. This work is leading to development of a set of values and threats maps which will guide conservation efforts, and enable major progress to be made in conserving and restoring the ecoregion. We are designing a targeted campaign which will encompass 5 of the area's most critically at-risk linkages. Read about conservation-related work here.